That 6-foot-10 pitcher with the Princeton pedigree and injury-plagued career who’ll be pitching for Triple-A Syracuse soon is Chris Young, who couldn’t secure a major league deal, that despite a 2.25 ERA and sub-.200 average for opponents over 16 spring-training innings with the Washington Nationals.

"He's a qualified, quality, major-league starting pitcher,” said Nats GM Mike Rizzo of the former Padres right-hander, “(who) gives us some additional depth in our rotation and a guy that could help us down the road."

Not necessarily a long way down the road, either. The Nationals have World Series aspirations based largely on their premier pitching staff, which is why a veteran with Young's experience and impressive Grapefruit League numbers didn't make the rotation. He signed a minor-league contract with the Nats, who sent him to Florida to get stretched out for a starting role with Syracuse.

If Dan Haren's next start is anything like his first one of the season -- homer-prone in exhibitions, he gave up four longballs last week at Cincinnati in a 15-0 loss --the Nats could be looking to Triple-A and possibly Young for reinforcement in their rotation.

Outfielder Jason Bay, like Young a former Padre and All-Star who didn't exactly enjoy his best days with the New York Mets, is now a fifth outfielder with the Seattle Mariners. Which is a better gig for him than it sounds, since Bay is from nearby British Columbia and lives in Kirkland, Wash.

"My wife busted my chops," he said. "We've lived in Seattle 12 years and never seen a summer, so I'm very excited about that."

And Kevin Kouzmanoff, who was with the Padres when making just three errors in 309 chances (.990) to set set a National League, single-season, record for third basemen, is now with the Miami Marlins' Triple-A team in New Orleans.

Something for the effort

The first time around, the Padres are missing Korean left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, whose turn missed San Diego. Ryu was suffering from more than a language barrier in his first appearance with the Dodgers, who didn’t pay him $36 million for his hitting or speed from home to first, but weren't happy with the way he barely made an effort to get out of the batter's box on a ground-out against San Francisco.

Folks at Dodger Stadium booed Ryu for his jog, if you could even call it that. The dynamics of running bases were lost on Ryu, who didn’t have to bat in Korea, where the designated hitter is utilized. After a conversation with Mattingly, Ryu apologized.

Job security

Playing second base for the Colorado Rockies has been sort of like playing drums for Spinal Tap. Which is to say, a highly temporary condition.

When he made the Opening Day lineup, Josh Rutledge was the Rockies' 13th different starting second baseman in the last 13 seasons. You have to go back to Mike Lansing in 1999-2000 to find the last Colorado second-sacker to start in consecutive openers.

You want gravy with that?

Beautiful ballpark, PNC in Pittsburgh, by many accounts the best in baseball. Evidently, it’s also a nice place to go to have your heart explode.

The Pirates’ concessions this year include the “Brunch Burger,” a ground-beef patty topped with bacon, a fried egg and cheddar cheese. It’s served between – you guessed it -- two glazed doughnuts with sprinkles on top. Statins, I'm guessing, cost extra.

The Bucs do offer a healthy-option concession stand.

Unusual. Unique. Unfathomable.

Thanks to the Upton brothers, the Braves are the first team with three position players whose last names start with “U.” (People actually look this stuff up.) The other is Dan Uggla. But get this. When the Braves played the Phillies, home runs were hit by Uggla, Justin Upton and Chase Utley of the Phils.

None of the pitches, for the record, were thrown by Ugueth Urbina.

Number

1992: The last year, until 2013, the Yankees opened a season without a switch-hitter in their lineup.

Round number

If he does nothing else over the rest of his career, Wilkin Ramirez of the Minnesota Twins made some history when pinch hitting against the Detroit Tigers last week. According to Baseball Reference, Ramirez thus made the 5,000,000th appearance in a major-league game.